The present invention relates generally to hardcopy devices which advance media through a printzone for printing, such as electrophotographic printers or as illustrated herein, inkjet printing mechanisms. More particularly, the present invention relates to a greeting card feeder module which may be used in conjunction with a duplexing printing mechanism to easily print greeting cards which are comparable with store-bought greeting cards.
The term xe2x80x9chardcopy devicexe2x80x9d includes a variety of printers and plotters, including those using inkjet and electrophotographic technologies to apply an image to a hardcopy medium, such as paper, transparencies, fabrics, foils and the like. Inkjet printing mechanisms print images using a colorant, referred to generally herein as xe2x80x9cink.xe2x80x9d These inkjet printing mechanisms use inkjet cartridges, often called xe2x80x9cpens,xe2x80x9d to shoot drops of ink onto a page or sheet of print media. Some inkjet print mechanisms carry an ink cartridge with a full supply of ink back and forth across the sheet. Other inkjet print mechanisms, known as xe2x80x9coff-axisxe2x80x9d systems, propel only a small ink supply with the printhead carriage across the printzone, and store the main ink supply in a stationary reservoir, which is located xe2x80x9coff-axisxe2x80x9d from the path of printhead travel. Typically, a flexible conduit or tubing is used to convey the ink from the off-axis main reservoir to the printhead cartridge. In multi-color cartridges, several printheads and reservoirs are combined into a single unit, with each reservoir/printhead combination for a given color also being referred to herein as a xe2x80x9cpen.xe2x80x9d As the inkjet industry investigates new printhead designs, one trend is toward using a xe2x80x9csnapperxe2x80x9d reservoir system where permanent or semi-permanent printheads are used and a reservoir carrying a fresh ink supply is snapped into place on the printhead.
Each pen has a printhead formed with very small nozzles through which the ink drops are fired. The particular ink ejection mechanism within the printhead may take on a variety of different forms known to those skilled in the art, such as those using piezo-electric or thermal printhead technology. For instance, two earlier thermal ink ejection mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,278,584 and 4,683,481, both assigned to the present assignee, the Hewlett-Packard Company. In a thermal system, a barrier layer containing ink channels and vaporization chambers is located between a nozzle orifice plate and a substrate layer. This substrate layer typically contains linear arrays of heater elements, such as resistors, which are energized to heat ink within the vaporization chambers. Upon heating, an ink droplet is ejected from a nozzle associated with the energized resistor.
To print an image, the printhead is propelled through a printzone back and forth across the page, ejecting drops of ink in a desired pattern as it moves. By selectively energizing the resistors as the printhead moves across the page, the ink is expelled in a pattern on the print media to form a desired image (e.g., picture, chart or text). The nozzles are typically arranged in linear arrays usually located side-by-side on the printhead, parallel to one another, and perpendicular to the scanning direction of the printhead, with the length of the nozzle arrays defining a print swath or band. That is, if all the nozzles of one array were continually fired as the printhead made one complete traverse through the printzone, a band or swath of ink would appear on the sheet. The width of this band is known as the xe2x80x9cswath heightxe2x80x9d of the pen, the maximum pattern of ink which can be laid down in a single pass. The print media, such as a sheet of paper, is moved through the printzone typically one swath width at a time, although some print schemes move the media incrementally by, for instance, halves or quarters of a swath width for each printhead pass to obtain a shingled drop placement which enhances the appearance of the final image.
Whether the printing mechanism uses either a snapper cartridge system, an off-axis system, a replaceable cartridge system or some other inkjet system, drop placement on the media must be coordinated with the incremental advance of the media through the printzone for sharp, vivid images and text, which are free of print defects, such as color banding, improper spacing, and printed line overlapping. Many types of inkjet printing mechanisms use a series of conventional paper drive rollers or tires to frictionally engage the print media and incrementally advance the media through the printzone, moving either a full or fractional swath width.
One such media advancing system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,338, currently assigned to the Hewlett-Packard Company. One inkjet printer, specifically the DeskJet(copyright) 970 model color inkjet printer sold by the Hewlett-Packard Company, has a duplexer unit. Other printers, such as the DeskJet(copyright) 930 and 950 models of color inkjet printers, also sold by the Hewlett-Packard Company, may be used in conjunction with an optional duplexing module sold by the Hewlett-Packard Company as the Automatic Two-Sided Printing Module, stock no. C6463A. As the home computer market grows, as well as business applications, consumers have a desire to print greeting cards on their own printers, and as print quality advances increase, current inkjet printers have the ability to produce greeting cards which are of a quality comparable to a store bought greeting card. Additionally, with the increasing popularity of the Internet and electronic commerce, there are many websites which offer a variety of greeting card designs that consumers can download and print. For example, one such website may be located at www.printablecards.com. Indeed, in the future stores may even offer greeting card media in pre-cut sizes, such as 7xc3x9710 inch sheets which could be pre-scored to easily fold into a 5xc3x977 inch greeting card.
Unfortunately, even with the ready availability of both pre-cut media and greeting card designs on the Internet and other software programs, most people still do not print their own greeting cards because of the complexity of the process, particularly when using currently available inkjet printers. Most consumers typically print on letter size media and only occasionally wish to print a greeting card, such as for holidays, birthdays and the like. For example, using a Microsoft Windows(copyright) based operating system on a home computer, printing a greeting card is a complicated lengthy process both in terms of physical hardware changes that need to be made to the printer, as well as software manipulation.
For example, FIGS. 5A and 5B together form a flow chart illustrating a prior art greeting card printing method. Since the drawings are labeled 5A and 5B, we will begin our discussion of this method with the letter C for the first step. Assuming an inkjet printer has been being used in a normal fashion for printing on letter-sized (8xc2xdxc3x9711 inch), in a removing step C, the user must first remove this normal sized paper (or other media) from the input tray and find a place to put the stack, which for some users with a slightly a cluttered work area may be a difficult task in itself. Then in a loading step D, the greeting card media is loaded into the input tray of the printer. Then in a width adjusting step E, the media width adjuster must be moved to snuggly press the stack against the side of the input tray. Then in a length adjusting step F, the media length adjuster must then be moved to snuggly press the greeting card stack back toward the media picking and feed mechanism.
Now the greeting card media has been loaded into the printer, the method continues with a software running step G, where the user then begins to run a particular greeting card software application. As mentioned above, this software application might be something which the user purchased, or it may be a design downloaded from the Internet or something custom created by the user using word processing or graphics programs. Then in a selecting step H, the user selects which greeting card to print. Then to begin the printing process, in an illustrated Microsoft Windows(copyright) brand based software application, in a selecting step I, the user must first select the xe2x80x9cFilexe2x80x9d menu and then select the xe2x80x9cpage set-upxe2x80x9d option. In another selecting step J, in the xe2x80x9cpage set-upxe2x80x9d pop-up window, the user must then select the greeting card media size option, here illustrated as 7xc3x9710 inches. In another selecting step K in the xe2x80x9cpage set-upxe2x80x9d pop-up window, the user must then select two-sided printing so a picture image or other text appears on the front of the finished card, and a greeting appears on the inside of a card. Then in another selecting step L, having selected the media size in step J and duplex printing in step K, the user must then select the xe2x80x9cokxe2x80x9d feature on the xe2x80x9cpage set-upxe2x80x9d pop-up window to close this window and continue the operation.
In a further selecting step M, the user must then again enter the file menu and then select the option xe2x80x9cprint.xe2x80x9d Now transitioning from FIG. 5A to FIG. 5B, at the top we see another selecting step N, where under the print pop-up screen, the user must now select the properties option which generates another pop-up screen having several different layers of selection based upon the particular type of printer being used. Then in another selecting step, the user must select the xe2x80x9cfeaturesxe2x80x9d tab to bring the variety of features available into view. In a further selecting step P on the features screen, a user must select two-sided printing. Following this selection of two-sided printing, in a selecting step Q, the user must indicate that two-sided printing is desired by activating the xe2x80x9cokxe2x80x9d feature to close the properties window. In a further selecting step R, the user must then select xe2x80x9cokxe2x80x9d to close the print screen and initiate printing of the greeting card. Of course between steps Q and R, a user might also wish to select the number of copies of the card they would like to print if more than one card was desired.
Finally, in a printing step S, the printer finally prints the greeting card, performing the required duplexing operation to print on both the inside and outside of the card after which, the card is deposited by the printer in the output tray. Having completed this tortuous process to this point, the user must then return the printer to the normal operating state for, in this example, printing on letter-sized paper. In a moving step T, the user moves the media width adjuster on the printer to the far left position to begin to release the greeting card media. In another moving step U, the media length adjusters moved to the fully extended or xe2x80x9coutxe2x80x9d position so the remaining blank greeting card media can be removed from the input tray of the printer. It is apparent some users may wish to reverse steps T and U. Having removed the greeting card media from the input tray, in a loading step V, the normal sized paper or other media is returned to the input tray. After the media has been loaded, in an adjusting step W, the media width adjuster must be moved against the normal size media to push it tightly against the side of the input tray. Finally, in a length adjusting step X, the media length adjuster is pushed toward the rear of the printer, to move the media stack into engagement with the media picking and feed mechanisms to leave the printer ready for a normal print job.
In reviewing this earlier printing routine required to change from a normal printing mode to printing a greeting card and then return the printer to the normal state, nearly every letter of the alphabet has been used. Indeed, steps I and M really include two steps, one of selecting the file menu and the other then selecting which option is required under the file menu. Furthermore, between steps U and V an additional step could have been added for the process of unloading the greeting card media. Moreover, if the printer was not capable of automatic duplex printing, while steps K and P could be eliminated after a user printed one side of the greeting card in step S, the card would still need to be placed back in the top of the input tray media stack to allow printing on the other side of the card by repeating the remainder of the steps D through S, before moving on with steps T through the end to return the printer to normal sized media. Effectively, without the ability to print with an automatic duplexer, the method nearly doubles in length. This system is just far to complicated for the majority of simple users who wish to quickly print a greeting card and continue on with other tasks in their day. Moreover, since most users only occasionally print greeting cards and this is not a daily occurrence they must remember all of these steps in order to successfully print a greeting card without unnecessarily wasting media where several months may go by between uses, for instance, between Christmas and Valentine""s Day, between Valentine""s Day and Easter, and then perhaps between Easter and the following Christmas. Unfortunately, the only clear memory a user may have of the last time they tried printing a greeting card is that it was just too complicated and troublesome, leaving them to conclude it would be far easier just to go to the store and buy a card.
Thus, a need exists for a simple uncomplicated way for users to print greeting cards which is quick and easy to repeat, with minimal interruption of normal printing.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a hardcopy printing mechanism is provided for printing images on a first-sized media and on opposing first and second surfaces a second-sized media. The printing mechanism includes a frame defining a printzone, and an image generator which selectively applies a colorant to a presented surface of media when in the printzone. A movement mechanism selectively presents a surface of media into the printzone, and an inverting mechanism selectively inverts media from the first surface to the second surface for presentation into the printzone. A first supply device stores a supply of the first-sized media for selection by the movement mechanism. A second supply device receives a sheet of the second-sized media for selection by the movement mechanism while the supply of said first-sized media remains stored in the first supply device. The movement mechanism first presents the first surface of the second-sized media to the image generator, after which the inverting mechanism inverts said second-sized media and said movement mechanism presents the second surface of the second-sized media to the image generator.
In an illustrated embodiment, the image generator is an inkjet printhead, the inverting mechanism is a duplexer unit, the first supply device is an input tray, and the second-sized media is greeting card stock. The second supply device comprises an output tray defining a slot therein for receiving greeting card stock.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a retrofit kit is provided for modifying a hardcopy printing mechanism having a frame, an input tray for storing a supply of a first-sized media, a duplexer unit for inverting media, a controller responsive to input signals to print images, and an output tray for receiving printed sheets of media. The retrofit kit includes a replacement tray which replaces the output tray after removal from the frame. The replacement tray defines an input slot sized to receive a second-sized media while the first-sized media remains in the input tray. The retrofit kit also includes a storage medium storing an operating program and a selection of images which generate input signals for the controller in response to selection of an image.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided of retrofitting a hardcopy printing mechanism having a frame, an input tray for storing a supply of a first-sized media, a duplexer unit for inverting media, a controller responsive to input signals to print images, and an output tray for receiving printed sheets of media. The method includes the step of removing the output tray from the frame. In an installing step, a replacement tray is installed in the frame. The replacement frame defines an input slot which is sized to receive a second-sized media. The method also has a loading step where an operating program is uploaded, with this operating program including a selection of images which generate input signals for the controller in response to selection of an image.
An overall goal of the present invention is to provide a hardcopy device with a greeting card feeder module and operating system which is easy to use.
Another goal of the present invention is to provide a hardcopy device with a greeting card feeder module and operating system which reliably produces clear crisp images.
A further goal of the present invention is to provide a retrofit kit, including hardware, software, and optionally a sample supply of greeting card stock, which allows consumers, who have previously purchased a printer without a greeting card feeder module, the option of retrofitting their printer with a new greeting card feeder module and associated software.
An additional goal of the present invention is to provide a hardcopy device with a greeting card feeder module and operating system which allows a user to quickly switch between their normal print media, such as letter-sized paper, and specialty sized print stock, such as greeting card stock.